UC-NRLF 


C   9641 


8 

CO 


IXa 


l^' 


(  No.  277  1 


THE    CRYING    NEED    OF   A 
RENEWED    CHRISTIANITY 


BY 


CHARLES  W.  EUOT 


PUBLISHED    FOK    FREE    DISTRIBUTION 

AMERICAN    UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION 

25  BEACON  STREET,  BOSTON 


£5-6 


The  American  Unitarian  Association 

WAS  Founded   in    182S    with  the 

Following  Expressed  Purpose 

**The  object  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association  shall  be  to  diffuse  the  know- 
ledge and  promote  the  interests  of  pure 
Christianity;  and  all  Unitarian  Christians 
shall  be  invited  to  unite  and  co-operate 
with  it  for  that  purpose." 

(The  G£ii£ral  Conference  qf.  Unitarian 
and  Othar'^^hriifrctni^MxiieSy  passed 
the  f^'UotAiji^\'^aki»ai>  Saratoga,  N,  7"., 

**These  Churches  accept  the  religion  of 
Jesus  holding,  in  accordance  with  his 
teaching,  that  practical  religion  is  summed 
up  in  love  to  God  and  love  to  man.'' 

**The  Conference  recognizes  the  fact 
that  its  constituency  is  Congregational  in 
tradition  and  polity.  Therefore,  it 
declares  that  nothing  in  this  Constitution 
is  to  be  construed  as  an  authoritative  test; 
and  we  cordially  invite  to  our  working 
fellowship  any  who,  while  differing  from 
us  in  belief,  are  in  general  sympathy  with 
our  spirit  and  our  practical  aims." 


THE  CRYING  NEED  OF  A  RENEWED 
CHRISTIANITY. 


An  address  delivered  under  the  auspices  of  the  Unitarian  Churches 
of  Philadelphia,  December  29,  1914. 

This  meeting  is  held  under  the  auspices  of  three 
Christian  Churches  of  a  peculiar  sort,  belonging  to  a 
small  denomination  called  Unitarian, —  peculiar  in 
that  they  have  no  ecclesiastical  organization  in  the 
ordinary  sense,  and  also  no  creed  or  body  of  dogmas 
which  members  of  such  churches  must  accept,  or  are 
supposed  to  accept.  Every  church  in  this  peculiar 
body  is  independent,  and,  like  the  church  of  the  Ply- 
mouth Pilgrims,  chooses  its  own  minister,  enters,  if 
possible,  into  such  fellowship  as  it  pleases  with  other 
churches,  and  decides  for  itself  upon  the  charitable, 
educational,  and  social  work  it  proposes  to  carry  on. 
The  denomination  stands  for  complete  religious  lib- 
erty, for  a  respectful  attitude  towards  all  sincere 
religious  beliefs  —  Christian  or  other  —  and  for  judg- 
ing every  religion  by  the  amount  of  genuine  twen- 
tieth-century ethics  which  finds  place  in  it.  This 
peculiar  church  invites  serious  and  candid  people  to 
unite,  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  worship  of 
God  and  the  service  of  Man,  but  leaves  entirely  to 
the  individual  the  decision  whether  he  shall  join  a 
church  or  not.  No  rite  bars  the  way  into  this  church, 
no  baptism,  confirmation,  or  examination,  and  no  one 

M186574 


I  t    C     C  C  ( 

«!  •       •    • 
•  *        «    * , 


enters  it  in  hope  of  reward  or  out  of  fear  of  punish- 
ment. 

The  great  churches  of  .  Christendom  all  possess 
powerful  ecclesiastical  organizations,  and  bodies  of 
doctrine  which  are  supposed  to  contain  already  the 
whole  of  essential  religious  truth,  and  to  be  unchange- 
able from  age  to  age,  except  as  the  ecclesiastical  bodies 
which  govern  the  respective  churches  choose  to  make 
additions,  or  to  issue  new  interpretations.  All  the 
great  Christian  churches  have  instituted  rites,  rituals, 
ceremonies,  sacraments,  and  observances  which  they 
require  their  members  to  accept,  attend,  or  perform, 
particularly  those  relating  to  birth,  marriage,  and 
death,  the  great  events  in  every  human  life.  The 
creeds  and  dogmas  of  these  churches  contain  many 
conceptions  which  are  not  arrived  at  or  deduced  by 
any  reasoning  process,  but  are  mere  products  of  the 
human  imagination  which  are  accepted  by  a  myste- 
rious intuition  or  insight  with  which  neither  inductive 
nor  deductive  reasoning  has  anything  to  do.  The 
Unitarian  Churches  reject  irrational  piety,  while 
maintaining  to  the  full  wonder,  reverence,  and  awe. 

The  period  at  which  this  meeting  takes  place,  is,  in 
many  respects,  the  most  awful  and  momentous  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  More  than  300,000,000  of 
people  are  involved  in  the  most  cruel  and  savage  War 
that  has  ever  been  waged, —  a  War  in  which  the  re- 
cently-won powers  of  Man  over  Nature  are  all  turned 
with  an  administrative  efficiency  greater  than  the 
world  has  ever  before  seen,  to  the  most  active  and 


8 


persistent  destruction  of  life  and  property,  of  the 
capital  laid  up  by  the  industry  and  frugality  of  many 
previous  generations,  and  of  the  good  will  which  had 
begun  to  develop  between  nation  and  nation.  The 
War  has  demonstrated  that,  while  mankind  discovered 
and  is  using  the  marvellous  new  powers  of  light,  heat, 
and  electricity  for  purposes  of  immense  beneficence, 
governments  called  Christian  are  capable  of  using 
these  same  powers,  acquired  for  beneficent  ends,  in  a 
manner  which  spreads  death,  desolation,  and  sorrow 
among  300,000,000  of  the  human  race,  availing  them- 
selves for  these  horrible  purposes  pf  some  of  the  finest 
moral  qualities  which  inhere  in  the  helpless  multi- 
tudes. Moreover,  during  fifty  years  past.  Christian 
nations  in  Europe  have  given  their  best  efforts  to  de- 
vising and  storing  up  the  means  of  making  war  in  the 
most  destructive  manner  and  on  an  unprecedented 
scale.  The  present  holocaust  has  been  planned  delib- 
erately with  the  utmost  intelligence  and  foresight, 
and  is  being  carried  on  with  terrible  efficiency  by  the 
nation  which  is  chiefly  responsible  for  it  —  a  Chris- 
tian nation  like  all  the  other  nations  involved  except 
Turkey  and  Japan.  This  is  the  immense  moral  cat- 
astrophe of  these  times.  It  has  taken  place  in  spite 
of  much  progress  made  within  a  hundred  years  past 
in  many  parts  of  the  world  in  popular  education, 
humane  literature,  and  public  liberty,  and  of  a  wide- 
spread, sjanpathetic  desire  on  the  part  of  the  more 
fortunate  men  and  women  to  serve  and  help  the  less 
fortunate. 


In  nineteen  hundred  years  the  Christian  institu- 
tions of  religion,  in  other  words,  the  highly-organized 
churches  of  Christendom,  have  not  only  been  unable 
to  accomplish  anything  effectual  towards  preventing 
the  frequent  occurrence  of  war,  but  have  often  incited 
to  war  each  its  own  nation  or  its  own  race,  and  have 
made  hotter  the  patriotic  fires  which  blaze  up  in  war- 
time. Every  ruler  concerned  with  the  present  War 
calls  upon  God  to  give  victory  to  his  arms ;  every  one 
of  them  believes,  as  firmly  as  David  or  Joshua  or 
Saladin  did,  that  the  Lord  is  on  his  side ;  and  each 
people  is  putting  up  eager  prayers  to  its  national 
God  which  cannot  be  granted  without  denying  the 
equally  fervent  prayers  which  go  up  from  its  adver- 
saries, and  is  giving  thanks  for  victories  for  its  side 
which  are  cruel  defeats  for  the  other.  Moreover, 
there  come  from  the  churches  to-day  no  effective 
influences  towards  peace,  but  only  delusive  consola- 
tions and  vague  wishes  and  petitions,  the  granting  of 
which  by  the  God  to  whom  they  are  addressed  would 
only  perpetuate  the  present  horrijjle  state  of  Europe. 
Who  could  imagine  that  the  chief  teachings  of  the 
founder  of  the  religion  which  these  nations  and 
churches  profess  were  —  love  God  and  thy  neighbor, 
and  treat  all  men  as  brothers.  Clearly  neither  nations 
nor  churches  have  ever  been  truly  Christian. 

It  is  a  fitting  time,  therefore,  in  which  to  seek  the 
reasons  for  the  inefficiency  of  the  great  Christian 
churches  in  promoting  the  moral  and  physical  welfare 
of  mankind  on  this  earth,  whatever  they  may  claim  to 


do  in  respect  to  human  happiness  in  another.  The 
first  explanation  is  that  institutional  Christianity 
departed  early  from  the  teachings  of  the  founder  of 
the  religion,  and  copied  in  its  structure  the  authori- 
tative and  hierarchical  arrangements,  and  in  its 
doctrine  the  materialism  of  the  Roman  world.  There 
emerged  from  the  early  centuries  after  Christ  two  des- 
potic churches,  each  of  which  undertook  to  rule  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men,  and  did  rule  for  many 
centuries  and  masses  of  the  European  peoples.  The 
Protestant  Reformation  made  a  serious  breach  in  the 
Roman  Church,  and  brought  in  some  new  liberty 
—  civil  as  well  as  religious  —  but  Protestantism 
remained  a  highly  authoritative  religion ;  for  within 
well-organized  Protestant  denominations  the  author- 
ity of  the  inspired  Bible  replaced  for  the  common 
people  the  authority  of  the  Roman  hierarchy,  the 
authoritative  interpretation  of  the  Bible  being  sup- 
plied by  small  groups  of  men  learned  in  the  theology 
of  the  times.  Not  till  the  Pilgrims  set  up  in 
Plymouth  their  Free  Church  in  their  Free  State, 
did  the  Christian  world  contain  a  fairly  successful 
example  of  instituted  civil  and  religious  liberty.  The 
Pilgrim  Church  and  State  set  up  standards  of  which 
America,  at  least,  has  never  lost  sight ;  but  within 
seventy-five  years  many  of  the  Pilgruns'  liberties 
were  lost  or  impaired;  so  that  the  compact  signed 
in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  and  John  Robinson's 
doctrine  that  more  light  and  truth  were  still  to  break 
forth  from  God's  Word,  became  little  more  than  a 
precious  and  fragrant  memory. 


6 

The  first  explanation,  then,  of  the  impotency  of  the 
Christian  churches  as  regards  the  prevention  of  war 
is  that  they  were  all  organized  with  too  much  author- 
ity and  too  little  libej-ty  in  them.  They  never  believed 
in  God's  way  of  developing  the  best  and  most  effec- 
tive human  character  —  the  way  of  liberty  to  sin,  in 
order  to  the  development  of  self-control.  The  Chris- 
tian ascetics  avoided  fleshly  temptation  by  mortify- 
ing the  flesh ;  the  monks  and  nuns  fled  from  the  world 
altogether.  The  first  duties  of  the  common  people  in 
religion  were  obedience  to  the  priest  and  the  obser- 
vance of  the  rites  the  priest  prescribed.  Men  and 
women  should  be  compelled  to  believe  whatever  the 
Church  dictated,  and  should  be  held  to  the  authorized 
beliefs  and  practices  of  the  church  by  custom,  tradi- 
tion, and  hallowed  associations.  The  churches  have 
not  relied  on  the  essential  dignity  of  human  nature 
and  the  human  love  of  freedom  for  the  uplifting  of 
the  race,  but,  on  the  contrary,  on  man's  tendency  to 
sin  and  his  fear  of  the  consequences,  and  on  his  too- 
frequent  degradation  in  this  world  and  his  hope  of 
salvation  in  another, —  a  salvation  obtainable  only 
through  the  vicegerents  of  God  on  earth.  Not  believ- 
ing in  liberty,  the  churches  have  habitually  supported 
autocratic  government,  and  that  climax  of  autocracy — 
military  discipline  for  purposes  of  conquest. 

The  second  explanation  of  the  impotency  of  the 
Christian  churches  to  prevent  war,  or  promote  peace, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  unethical  quality  of  some  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  churches,  as  crystallized  in 
their  dogmas  and  creeds.     The  official  creeds  of  the 


great  churches  of  Christianity,  and  many  parts  of  the 
Scriptures  contain  conceptions  of  God's  nature  and  of 
His  action  toward  the  human  race  which  are  intoler- 
able to  the  ethical  mind  of  the  nineteenth  and  twen- 
tieth centuries.  The  creeds  of  the  evangelical  churches 
are,  as  a  rule,  built  on  the  "  fall  of  man  "  as  described 
in  the  story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  absolute  cor- 
rectness or  trustworthiness  of  the  story  itself  being 
assumed  on  the  ground  that  its  author  was  inspired 
by  God  himself.  The  conduct  attributed  to  God  in 
that  story  would  be  wholly  unworthy  of  any  man 
whose  standards  of  conduct  accorded  with  the  average 
sentiments  about  right  and  wrong  of  civilized  people 
to-day.  God  in  that  story  is  unjust,  mean,  and  cruel; 
yet  the  story,  taken  as  a  narrative  of  facts,  has  been 
made  the  foundation  of  the  official  creeds  of  all  the 
great  Christian  churches. 

Man  fell  from  a  superior  state  of  innocency  into  a 
condition  of  sin  and  misery.  Nevertheless,  he  peopled 
the  earth  with  creatures  like  himself,  degraded  and 
wretched.  But  this  result  was  unsatisfactory  even  to 
barbarous  ages,  when  considered  as  the  work  of  God, 
and  means  of  redemption  and  ultimate  salvation  had 
to  be  devised  and  formulated.  Hence  came  the 
practice  of  propitiation  or  expiation  by  sacrifices  — 
human  sacrifices  at  first  in  Israel,  but  later  burnt 
offerings  of  beasts  and  birds ;  and  finally  the  Chris- 
tian church  discovered  in  the  scriptures  a  vicarious 
atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  world  by  the  Son  of 
God,  incarnated  for  a  brief  residence  on  this  atom  of 
an  earth,  in  this  insignificant  solar  system  among  the 


8 


countless  myriads  of  celestrial  bodies.  The  Lamb  of 
God  was  sacrificed  for  the  sins  of  the  world ;  and  so 
some  small  proportion  of  the  human  race  was  rescued 
from  eternal  torment  to  justify  by  their  eternal  hap- 
piness, so  far  as  they  might,  the  original  creation  of  a 
feeble  race  tricked  into  sin.  The  creeds  of  the  great 
churches  differ  as  to  the  proportion  of  the  race  really 
rescued  by  the  vicarious  atonement  through  Jesus 
Christ ;  but  they  all  agree  in  making  this  vicarious 
atonement  necessary  to  the  salvation  of  any  proportion 
of  the  human  race. 

In  these  days,  the  whole  conception  of  one  being — 
human  or  divine  —  suffering,  though  innocent,  for 
the  sins  of  another,  or  of  innumerable  others,  is  re- 
volting to  the  universal  sense  of  justice  and  fair  deal- 
ing. No  family,  no  school,  and  no  court  would 
venture  to  punish  the  innocent,  when  the  guilty  were 
known,  in  order  that  the  guilty  might  escape  punish- 
ment. Any  human  father  would  be  outraged  by  the 
suggestion  that  he  had  ever  dealt,  or  could  so  deal 
with  his  children  ;  and  yet  every  member  of  the  great 
Christian  churches  is  supposed  to  believe  that  God 
deals  in  that  way  with  the  human  race ;  and  that  the 
victim  offered  up  for  the  redemption  of  a  portion  of 
the  human  race  was,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  the  son  of 
God.  How  incredible  it  is,  that  the  religious  institu- 
tions and  doctrines,  which  resulted  from  the  perver- 
sions of  the  real  teachings  of  Jesus  by  the  pagan 
world,  should  have  been  so  completely  and  fundamen- 
tally inconsistent  with  the  ethics  of  those  teachings ! 

Before  the  Christian  churches  can  be  expected  to 


be  efficient  in  the  promotion  of  human  welfare,  and 
particularly  in  the  bringing  of  peace  on  earth,  they 
must  purge  themselves  of  such  doctrines  as  these. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say  in  defense  of  the  churches 
that  many  church  members  in  good  standing  no 
longer  believe  these  shocking  doctrines ;  they  should 
be  eliminated  from  the  published  standards  and 
confessions  of  the  churches. 

The  historical  Christian  churches  were  early  made 
partners  with  empires,  monarchies,  and  baronies,  in  the 
control  and  oppression  of  the  masses  of  mankind,  and, 
the  governments  being  maintained  by  force,  the 
churches  became,  in  general,  supporters  of  the  mili- 
tary regime.  This  was  natural  enough,  because  the  God 
of  the  Christian  churches,  like  Israel's  God,  was  com- 
monly thought  of  as  Lord  of  Hosts,  God  of  Battles, 
Successful  Invader,  and  Glorious  Conqueror.  These 
martial  attributes  of  God  were  described  with  glow- 
ing fervor  in  the  litanies,  ascriptions,  and  thanks- 
givings of  the  churches.  Joshua's  God  was  the  most 
ruthless  of  destroyers.  Not  so  destructive,  however, 
as  the  German  Emperor's  God  to-day ;  because  he 
evidently  lacked  the  power  to  destroy  everything  that 
he  wished  to  destroy:  "And  the  Lord  was  with 
Judah ;  and  he  drave  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  moun- 
tain, but  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the 
valley,  because  they  had  chariots  of  iron."  Some  of 
the  Canaanites  successfully  resisted  the  Lord  of  the 
Israelite  hosts  ;  but  in  these  later  days  the  Belgians 
could  not  successfully  resist  the  Lord  of  the  German 
hosts.     This  conception  of  God  is  hideous,  cruel,  and 


10 

insane;  and  no  Christian  church  which  tolerates  it 
can  be  efficient  in  the  promotion  of  human  welfare 
and  happiness. 

Not  only  is  the  God  of  the  great  Christian  churches 
often  a  War  God,  but  the  Christian  life  itself  is  often 
represented  in  Christian  hymn  and  preachings  as  a 
battle.  The  Christian  fights  against  Satan  and  the 
powers  of  evil, —  he  goes  forth  to  war  against  the 
evils  and  wrongs  of  his  day :  "  The  Son  of  God  goes 
forth  to  war,  a  kingly  crown  to  gain"  —  meanest  of 
motives.  The  saint  wears  armor,  the  armor  of  the 
mediaeval  battle-field,  and  the  archangels  and  the 
knights  set  upon  the  dragons  and  fiends,  and  slay 
them  with  swords.  A  large  part  of  the  imagery  of 
Christian  literature  is  drawn  from  the  work  of 
soldiers  and  armies.  "  Onward  Christian  soldiers, 
marching  as  to  war"  is  to-day  one  of  the  favorite 
hymns  of  the  Protestant  churches.  In  the  annual  pro- 
cession of  the  Corpus  Christi  in  Vienna,  three  bodies 
take  common  part,  each  with  great  magnificence, — 
the  court,  the  army,  and  the  church.  This  is  the  hab- 
itual association  which  has  gradually  undermined 
the  capacity  of  the  Church  to  advance  in  modern 
Europe  the  cause  of  justice,  mercy,  and  liberty, 
and  hence  of  peace  and  good-will. 

The  Christian  nations  have,  however,  attained  since 
the  middle  ages  to  a  civilization  which  seems  to 
modern  men  in  Christian  lands  higher  than  that  of 
the  non-Christian  nations,  except  in  the  prevalence  of 
international  war  and  fighting  in  general.  For  at  least 
six  hundred  years  the  Christian  nations  have  fought 


11 

oftener  and  harder  than  the  so-called  heathen.  With- 
in the  past  two  centuries  all  the  great  wars  have  been 
fought  on  Christian  soil  by  Christian  soldiers.  This 
recognized  superiority  in  general  civilization,  however, 
is  not  chiefly  due  to  the  churches,  but  to  other  influ- 
ences. The  chief  beneficial  result  of  the  Crusades  was 
a  remarkable  development  of  Mediterranean  commerce 
between  the  East  and  the  West.  The  period  which 
we  call  the  Renaissance  was  the  period  of  a  remark- 
able revival  of  classical  learning,  and  particularly  of 
the  Greek  literature.  The  discovery  of  America 
brought  about  an  immense  increase  of  commercial 
adventure  and  of  Occidental  wealth;  while  the 
religious  enthusiasm  which  accompanied  the  discovery 
was  the  source  of  hideous  cruelties  and  barbarities. 
The  Reformation  was  not  a  normal  product  of  the 
Roman  Church  but  a  rebellion  and  schism  within  that 
church,  one  consequence  of  which  was  an  increase  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty  in  Europe.  In  the  eighteenth 
century  began  the  great  series  of  scientific  discoveries 
due  to  the  adoption  and  successful  use  of  the  inductive 
philosophy  and  method ;  and  for  the  last  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  it  has  been  natural  and  physical  science 
which  has  been  the  main  contributor  to  the  increasing 
material  welfare  of  mankind.  Science  has  won  its 
way  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  principal  Chris- 
tian churches ;  and  that  opposition  did  not  cease  until 
within  the  memory  of  men  now  living ;  indeed,  it  still 
breaks  out  from  time  to  time.  And  now,  within  the 
last  five  months,  the  worst  War  of  all  recorded  time, — 
worst  because  of  its  wide  extent,  the  fury  with  which 


12 


it  is  prosecuted,  and  the  destructive  power  of  its  new 
implements,  —  brings  unheard-of-misery  upon  the 
human  race ;  and  the  Christian  churches  are  helpless 
to  prevent  it,  or  even  to  mitigate  its  horrors.  The 
effective  organizations  for  such  pitifully  small  relief 
as  can  be  given  are  for  the  most  part  not  religious 
but  secular.  The  care  of  the  wounded  falls  on 
men  and  women  trained  in  natural  and  physical 
science,  and  possessing  manual  skill  and  the  spirit  of 
service.  The  effective  works  of  mercy  are  performed 
not  chiefly  by  representatives  of  the  churches  or  by 
religious  partisans  and  zealots,  but  by  men  and  women 
who  understand  how  to  get  food  to  the  starving,  to 
bring  firs1>aid  to  the  wounded  and  carry  them  quickly 
to  hospitals,  to  prevent  fevers  and  infections,  to  purify 
water  supplies,  and  to  treat  lock-jaw,  gangrene,  and 
frostbite.  The  effective  advocates  of  peace  and  good- 
will among  men  in  this  horrible  convulsion,  produced 
by  a  nation  which  believes  in  discipline,  ruthless  force, 
and  the  domination  of  the  strong  over  the  weak,  are 
not  the  priests  and  ministers  of  traditional  Christianity, 
or  the  performers  of  rites  and  ceremonies,  but  the 
teachers  of  public  liberty  as  the  indispensable  source 
of  the  highest  efficiency  in  individual  or  nation,  and  of 
public  justice  and  righteousness  developed  under  free 
governmental  institutions  which  train  men  to  self- 
control  in  freedom  under  law. 

The  great  European  War  is  fundamentally  a  con- 
flict between  freedom  and  democracy  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  rule  of  hereditary  monarchs  and  a  military 
class   on   the  other,  that   rule   being  maintained  by 


13 


appeals  to  love  of  country  and  national  pride,  and 
enforced  by  a  stern  discipline  which  leaves  nothing 
of  liberty  to  the  individual.  In  this  strife  the  Chris- 
tian Church  as  a  whole  is  divided,  each  national 
church  supporting  its  own  nation ;  and  by  inheritance 
and  tradition  each  national  church  supports  the  war- 
making  power,  no  matter  how  cruel,  deceitful,  and 
faithless  that  power  may  prove  to  be.  In  short,  the 
established  and  conventional  churches  manifest  little 
power  to  promote  either  love  to  God  or  love  to  the 
neighbor.  ^ 

Is  this  ineffective  condition  the  final  issue  of  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  is  it  only  the  result  of 
the  structure  of  the  institutions,  and  the  quality 
of  the  doctrines  in  which  those  teachings  have  been 
embodied  and  set  forth?  To  this  question  a  great 
many  men  in  all  the  nations  of  Europe  and  America 
reply  that  such  a  discussion  has  no  interest  for  them ; 
that  they  have  not  only  rejected  the  traditional  dogmas 
of  established  Christianity,  but  that  they  have  no 
interest  in  discussing  them ;  that  the  vital  movements 
of  the  human  spirit  have  taken  more  promising  direc- 
tions; and  that  they  are  concerned  not  with  the  Chris- 
tian churches,  but  with  the  new  powers  which  make 
for  liberty,  enlightenment,  and  progress.  Multitudes 
of  these  men  say  that  they  are  ready  for  any  sort  of 
social  service  ;  and  at  this  moment  multitudes  of  them 
in  France  and  England  are  showing  by  their  voluntary 
acts  that  they  are  ready  to  suffer  and  die  in  the  cause 
of  freedom  ;  while  other  multitudes,  equal  in  number, 
permit  themselves  to  be  driven  to  wounds  and  death 


14 

in  the  cause  of  effective  discipline,  force,  and  domina- 
tion. On  both  sides,  millions  of  men  are  exhibiting 
extraordinary  self-sacrifice  and  devotion,  natural  fruits 
of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but  most  of  these  heroes 
have  not  consciously  derived  these  lofty  sentiments 
from  the  Christian  churches,  but  are  moved  by  the 
common  loves  of  family,  home,  and  country. 

For  two  generations  the  men  that  have  been  doing, 
and  are  now  doing  the  work  of  the  world  have,  in  large 
measure,  withdrawn  from  the  organized  churches, 
or  maintain  but  a  nominal  connection  with  them, — a 
connection,  however,  which  often  includes  consider- 
able payments  to  the  churches  on  behalf  of  their 
wives  and  children.  Educated  men  as  a  rule,  in 
both  Europe  and  America,  have  ceased  to  be  influ- 
enced in  their  opinions  or  their  actions  by  the  dogmas 
of  the  churches,  by  the  rewards  churches  offer,  or  by 
the  punishments  they  threaten.  Sunday  has  become 
a  day  for  physical  rest,  for  outdoor  refreshment,  for 
attention  to  the  family,  or  for  the  enjoyment  of  music, 
— sometimes  at  the  church,  but  oftener  at  the  club, 
the  park,  or  the  concert  hall.  With  trifling  excep- 
tions, the  church  is  no  longer  the  centre  of  social 
recognition,  or  of  social  enjoyments  for  the  multitude. 
The  granges  and  trades-unions,  the  neighborhood 
houses,  and.  the  numerous  beneficial  societies  provide 
in  many  communities  the  needed  opportunities  for 
social  intercourse  which  church  meetings  used  to 
provide.  In  former  times  the  Christian  churches 
were  the  almoners  for  the  poor  and  desolate ;  and  the 
chief  works  of  mercy  were  carried  on  by  men  and 


16 


women  especially  commissioned  by  the  Christian 
Church.  Now,  secular  societies,  administered  by  lay- 
men, carry  on  many  of  the  principal  movements  for 
the  improvement  of  society, — such  as  the  Civil  Service 
Reform  Leagues,  the  Playground  Association,  the 
Young  Men's  and  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, and  the  Associations  for  Baby,  School,  Social, 
and  Mental  Hygiene;  and  many  of  the  hospitals, 
dispensaries,  and  asylums,  whether  supported  by 
taxation  or  by  the  voluntary  contributions  of  public, 
spirited  persons,  are  the  works  of  people  whose  mo- 
tive-power is  not  derived  from  churches.  To  be  sure, 
many  churches  have,  of  late,  taken  up  some  kinds  of 
social  work ;  but  in  such  labors  the  churches  are  as  a 
rule  less  effective  than  the  lay  societies.  Even  in  its 
function  of  teaching  children  what  religion  is,  what 
right  conduct  is,  and  what  the  motives  are  which  lead 
to  right  conduct,  the  Church  has  much  to  learn.  The 
Sunday  School  does  not  compare  favorably  in  method 
or  results  with  the  week-day  school,  even  as  a  teacher 
of  elementary  ethics ;  for  it  often  lacks  sound  methods, 
adequate  time,  and  the  support  of  parents. 

The  fundamental  trouble  is  that  the  Christian 
churches,  as  instituted  and  organized,  have  relied  for 
centuries  on  imposed  beliefs,  rites,  sacraments,  sym- 
bols, and  observances.  Since  the  latter  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  it  has  become  more  and  more 
difficult  to  impose  beliefs  on  educated  people;  and 
intelligent  men  have  steadily  lost  faith  in  mysticism- 
symbolism,  and  sacerdotalism,  and  have  come  to  rely 
more  and  more  on  the  careful  ascertainment  of  facts, 


16 


the  human  reason,  and  the  natural  sentiments  of 
reverence  and  love.  They  have  also  come  to  prefer 
for  themselves  and  their  families  liberty,  independ- 
ence, and  public  order  founded  on  agreed-upon  law, 
to  obedience,  submission^  and  order  founded  on 'dis- 
cipline administered  to  the  many  by  the  few.  With 
these  new  tendencies  of  the  human  spirit  the  great 
Christian  churches  are  not  in  full  accord. 

The  great  Christian  churches  have  always  sup- 
ported the  claim  of  absolute  monarchs  that  they  rule 
by  Divine  right;  but  in  the  modern  world  only 
ignorant  or  archaic  persons  accept  that  doctrine.  The 
mystic  has  always  believed  that  in  some  unimaginable 
way  he  is  the  recipient,  on  occasion,  of  direct  revela- 
tions from  God  through  faculties  or  means  of  percep- 
tion in  himself  which  are  instinctive  rather  than 
reasonable ;  but  the  advance  in  man's  knowledge  of 
nature,  and  in  his  power  to  apply  to  his  own  uses  the 
natural  forces,  has  made  it  harder  than  it  used  to  be 
for  an  intelligent  man  to  be  a  mystic.  The  thinking 
person  who  is  enduring  a  life  of  suffering  now,  on 
this  earth,  is  much  less  disposed  than  he  used  to  be 
to  accept  as  a  real  consolation  another  imagined  life 
free  from  the  struggles  and  pains  of  the  present  life. 
In  other  words,  the  consolations  and  hopes  which  the 
Christian  churches  have  heretofore  imparted  to  suffer- 
ing human  beings  are  to-day  far  less  efficacious  than 
they  were  in  the  first  eighteen  centuries.  Neither 
the  heaven  nor  the  hell  of  the  Christian  churches 
appeals  to  the  modern  man  as  it  formerly  did  to  his 
predecessors. 


17 


The  condition  of  Europe  at  this  moment  is  the  last 
and  most  convincing  demonstration  that  the  great 
churches  of  Christendom  have  lost  their  power  to 
keep  Man  from  sin,  to  guide  him  on  an  upward  path, 
and  to  make  him  happy ;  for  the  churches  are  helpless 
in  the  presence  of  this  terrible  mass  of  long-planned, 
elaborately  contrived  human  sin,  shame,  ajid  suffering, 
although  the  mass  is  shot  through  by  splendid  gleams 
of  courage,  self-sacrifice,  and  patriotic  devotion. 

The  religious  state  of  Christendom  to-day  is  there- 
fore in  need  of  a  genuine  revival.  Mankind  needs  to 
worship,  needs  incitements  to  love,  reverence,  and 
duty,  and  a  happy  spiritual  conception  of  the  uni- 
verse. Without  these  helps,  Man  cannot  possibly  be 
happy  in  his  family,  his  labor,  or  his  social  order. 
Without  these  conceptions  of  the  finite  and  the  infinite 
values,  Man  cannot  rise  in  his  nature  or  his  life  from 
bad  to  good,  and  from  good  to  better.  No  single  per- 
sonality bom  in  Christendom — and  no  class  of  persons 
— can  reach  his  best  without  accepting  as  his  guides 
in  life  the  fundamental  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ, — 
love  God  and  the  neighbor,  have  compassion  on  the 
wronged  and  the  desolate,  seek  the  truth  that  frees, 
and  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  To  live  in 
this  way,  it  is  not  necessary  to  accept  any  of  the 
dogmas  of  the  great  churches,  or  any  part  of  their 
symbolism  or  ritualism.  Indeed,  much  of  their  sym- 
bolism, ritualism,  dogmatism  and  ecclesiasticism  is 
inconsistent  with  essential  obedience  to  the  precepts 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

What  then  is  the  renewed  Christianity  which  these 


18 


terrible  times  we  are  living  in  cry  out  for  in  the 
midst  of  tears  and  heart-breaking  sorrows?  It  is  a 
Christianity  which  abandons  the  errors  and  the  un- 
just, cruel  conceptions  which  the  centuries  have  piled 
up  on  the  simple  teachings  of  Jesus.  It  is  a  Chris- 
tianity which  sympathizes  with  and  supports  the  aspir- 
ations of  mankind  for  freedom, — freedom  in  thought, 
speech  and  action, — and  completely  abandons  authori- 
tative ecclesiasticism  and  governmental  despotism. 
It  is  a  Christianity  which  hallows  and  consecrates 
birth,  marriage,  the  bringing  up  of  children,  family 
life,  the  earning  of  the  livelihood,  and  death,  and  re- 
jects all  the  aspersions  on  the  natural  life  of  Man 
which  Christianity  inherited  from  paganism  and 
Judaism.  It  is  a  Christianity  which  will  be  the  friend 
and  ally  of  all  that  is  good  and  ennobling  in  literature- 
science,  and  art,  and  will  avail  itself  without  fear  of 
all  the  new  means  of  teaching  and  helping  men  which 
successive  generations  shall  discover,  and  of  all  the 
innocent  enjoyments  and  social  pleasures,  while  resist* 
ing  effectively  every  unwholesome  or  degrading  influ- 
ence on  human  society.  It  is  a  Christianity  which 
will  recognize  that  the  pursuit  of  happiness  in  this 
world  is  legitimate  for  every  human  being,  and  that 
the  main  function  of  government  is  to  protect  and 
further  men  in  that  pursuit  by  securing  to  the 
community  health,  education,  wholesome  productive 
labor,  and  liberty. 

Do  you  ask  if  there  exist  in  the  world  any  ex- 
emplars of  this  sort  of  Christianity?  Fortunately  for 
the  future  of   the  world,  there  are  to  be  found  in 


19 


nearly  every  Christian  communion  individuals  who 
illustrate  in  their  personal  lives  the  purity  and  power 
of  the  simple  religion  taught  by  Jesus  Christ.  Many 
of  these  persons  are  quite  unconscious  of  the  em- 
barrassments which  the  creeds,  rituals,  dogmas,  and 
discipline  of  their  respective  churches  would  inflict 
on  their  candid  minds,  if  they  realized,  or  appre- 
hended in  clear  and  logical  statements,  the  meaning 
of  the  traditional  doctrines  and  rites  of  their  churches. 
Finding  themselves  practically  free  to  do  justly,  love 
mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  their  God,  they  remain 
in  the  churches  into  which  they  were  born,  held  there 
by  family  ties,  sweet  associations,  or  conservative 
sentiment,  and  inattentive  to  the  inconsistencies  be- 
tween their  life  of  the  spirit  and  the  historical  doc- 
trines of  the  churches  to  which  they  belong.  They 
are  all  exemplars  of  the  renewed  Christianity  of  which 
there  is  such  crying  need;  and  many  of  them  are 
active  promoters  of  that  renewal. 

The  liberal  churches  of  Protestanti&m  are,  however, 
the  best  exemplars  of  renewed  Christianity ;  because 
they  have  definitely  abandoned  the  official  creeds  and 
dogmas  of  the  past,  all  ecclesiasticism,  and  almost  all 
symbolism  and  ritualism.  Their  membership,  modest 
in  number  and  little  disposed  to  proselytism,  consists 
exclusively  of  persons  who  propose  to  be  free,  simple, 
and  candid  in  their  religious  thought,  and  in  all 
expressions  of  that  thought.  These  independent 
churches  lay  the  empnasis  on  character  and  conduct, 
and  are  concerned  with  the  tendencies  and  practices 


20 


of  their  members  in  daily  action,  rather  than  with  the 
beliefs  of  their  fellowship. 

After  all,  true  Christianity  is  not  a  body  of  doc- 
trines, or  an  official  organization  to  conduct  and  con- 
trol men's  minds  and  wills.     It  is  a  way  of  life. 


THE    ORIGIN    AND    CHARACTER 

OF    THE   BIBLE 
AND   ITS  PLACE  AMONG  SACRED  BOOKS 

Being  a  revised  and  enlarged  edition  of 

The  Bible  :     Its    Origin,  Growth   and    Character 

Brought  up-to-date  in  every  particular  and  embodying  the  resul'-.s 
of  the  latest  scholarship ;  with  illustrative  tables,  lists  of  the  bei)t 
books  for  reading  and  study,  and  several  entirely  new  chapter.}. 

By  Rev.  Jabez  Thomas  Sunderland,  A.M. 

Author  of  "  The  Spark  in  the  Clod,"   "  What  is  the  Bible  ?  "  et  ^ 

THERE  is  no  more  living  or  urgent  subject  now  befor* 
the  religious  world  than  that  of  the  higher  Biblical 
criticism  and  its  results.  What  is  the  Bible  ?  What 
has  the  best  Biblical  scholarship, —  a  scholarship  that  iji 
honest,  independent  and  competent,  a  scholarship  that 
investigates  to  find  out  the  facts,  and  then  plainly  speak* 
the  truth, — to  tell  us  about  the  Biljle,  as  to  its  origin,  it5 
authorship,  its  growth,  its  reliability,  its  real  character,  its 
transitory  elements,  its  permanent  value  ? 
This  book  answers  these  questions  clearly,  and  in  the  light 
of  large  knowledge;  fearlessly,  yet  in  an  eminently  candid, 
catholic  and  reverent  spirit.  At  once  scholarly  and  popular,, 
it  is  perhaps  the  best  exposition  of  the  new  view  of  the  Bible 
that  nas  yet  been  given  to  the  public.  Already,  in  its  earlier 
and  less  complete  form,  it  has  won  for  itself  wide  favor  both 
in  this  country  and  in  England.  In  its  new  and  revised  form 
it  bids  fair  to  be  still  more  useful  and  popular. 
While  intended  primarily  for  individual  reading,  it  is  also 
exceptionally  well  adapted  for  Bible  class  study.  No  one 
who  wants  to  know  the  last  and  most  authoritative  word  of 
Biblical  scholarship  can  afford  to  overlook  this  book. 

i2mo.  322  pp.  $1.20  net;  by  mail,  $1.34 

AMERICAN    UNITAJ^IAN    ASSOCIATION 
25  Beacon  Street,  Boston 


YC134726 


THE  American  Unitarian  Association  is  the  workinj 
missionary  organization  of  the  Unitarian  churches 
of  America.  It  seeks  to  promote  sympathy  and  united] 
action  among  Liberal  Giiris^ians,  and  to  spread  the  prin- 
ciples which  are  believed  by  Unitarians  to  be  essential  t( 
civil  and  religious  liberty  and  progress  and  to  the  attain- 
ments of  the  spiritual  life.  To  this  end  it  supports 
missionaries,  establishes  and  maintains  churches,  hold; 
conventions,  aids  in  building  meeting-houses,  publishes, 
oells,  and  gives  away  books,  sermons,  tracts,  hymn-books  J 
and  devotional  works. 

A  list  of  free,  tract?  will  be  sent  on  application, 
full  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  publications  of  th< 
Association,  including  doctrinal,  devotional  andpractical 
works,  will  be  sent  to  all  who  apply. 

The  Association  is  supf)orted  ^  the  voluntary  contri- 
butions of  churches  and  individuals.  Individual 
desiring  to  co-operate  with  this  Association  may  receive 
a  certificate  of  Associate  Membership  by  signing  ai 
application  card  (sent  on  request  to  the  Associate 
Department)  and  the  payment  of  one  dollar.  Address 
communications  and  contributions  to  the  Secretary  at 
his  office,  25  Beacon  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


FORM    OF   BEQUEST. 

I  give  and  bequeath  to  the  American   Unitarian  Associ^X 
tioHi  a  corporation  established  by  law  in  the  State  o/  Massa\ 

chusetts,  the  sum  of, , dollars^  the  principal 

be  securely  invested  and  the  income  to  be  used  to  promote  ik\ 
work  of  the  Association, 


Hill 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAL! 

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■CO  >-o , 


LOAN  DEPT 

LD  21-100m-12,'46(A20128l6)4120 


5Mar'63RC 
WECTD  Ed 

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'Pfi  21  1947 

rJEC'D  LD 

.UG  12  1957  '''"*    ^^^-4pif 

FEB    119S7  7 

RECEIVED 

FEB  3167-SAM 


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